Pak boy found in Rajasthan after two years: Report

ISLAMABAD: A seven-year-old boy, who went missing from his home in Pakistan’ s restive northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province two years ago, has been traced to Rajasthan following a social media post, a media report said on Sunday.

Tufail Ismail was said to be in Rajasthan’s Ganga Nagar district after his maternal uncle in Saudi Arabia saw a picture on social media shared by Indian social worker Sujewa Pereira nearly two months ago, the Dawn quoted the child’s father Zafar Ali as saying.

Zafar also said Pereira had shared a contact number beneath the photo and requested social media users to share the post so the child could be reunited with his family. When Tufail’s uncle dialled the number, he was told the missing boy was in police custody in Ganga Nagar district.

However, DGP Rajasthan Manoj Bhatt and Sri Ganga Nagar superintendent of police Rahul Katakey denied having knowledge of any such child. They told PTI that it might be a rumour.

The Dawn report said Ismail went missing on June 6, 2014, while his family was shifting their home from Sardaryab to Tarnab in Charsadda district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The report also said it had been 45 days since Zafar learned of his son’s whereabouts but had been unable to bring him back. The family is now hoping the Pakistani government will help in this.

Ismail’s parents appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his counterpart Nawaz Sharif to help bring their son home, the report said.